Skipping Stones
by obsessivegirl73
Summary: Severus and Lily need a break from the Marauders in their third year. One-shot. Birthday present for my friend TB.


Disclaimer: I don't own HP.

**AN:** If you want this story to end happily, read as if it's AU. If you want bittersweet, read as if it's canon.

Skipping Stones

Laughter echoed throughout the Great Hall as Severus Snape looked at his brightly-colored pink robes in horror. On the other side of the hall, Lily Evans' jaw fell open and she ran as fast as she could to her best friend.  
"Sev, are you alright?" Worry was clearly present in her voice.  
"Just Potter and Black again," he muttered as he glared at the group of four hooligans who were dying of laughter, one slightly less so than the others, but still laughing.  
She hugged him tightly and told him "We should just get away from them today. We both could use a break."  
"I agree. After classes, right?"  
"No, let's go right now. We can go to the lake, the teacher's won't care if we miss once since we haven't skipped before."  
Snape's eyebrows rose, "Lily Evans, voluntarily missing a class?"  
Lily's face lit up with a grin, "Just once. Never again, but we definitely need a break."  
Sev shrugs, but agrees. They quickly finish eating and head back to their dormitories to change their shoes into sandals (and for Severus change his robes into the standard black) and grab whatever else they thought they might need.  
Once at the lake, they just lied down and stared at the clouds. It was actually a pretty nice day, with light, wispy clouds and a baby blue sky.  
Lily turns her head full of red hair to look at Sev's with black.  
"Wanna see who can skip stones furthest?"  
"Not yet. Relaxing right here is nice, let's keep doing that for a little longer."  
So they lie there for another ten minutes before Sev mentions their game again.  
"Want to skip stones now?"  
Lily smiles at him and says "Of course!"  
So they scramble up and each of them looks around to find the smoothest rocks possible until they each have a fair collection. Severus nods at Lily, indicating for her to start.  
"No, you go ahead."  
"No thank you. You're the one who suggested it, you should go first."  
"Nah, you should. I don't wanna go first."  
Severus looked at her, annoyed, but relented. He took a stone in his hand and flicked it across the water. It skipped one time, surprising Severus. Lily, on the other hand...  
"Only one skip? That's pathetic Sev! Here, let me show you how it's done!"  
She took one of hers and shot it across the water and it skipped three times.  
"Hmm. That was a rather pathetic skip for me too..."  
"Agreed." Severus told her with a smirk.  
Lily's jaw fell and she glared mischievously at him. "You aren't supposed to agree with me! You're supposed to say 'No, that was a wonderful throw Lily!' or something like that."  
Sev chuckled. "But I didn't."  
She responded by giving him a good-natured shove. He laughed and shoved her back, before skipping another stone. This time it bounced off the water twice.  
Lily smile widened, while saying, "It's an improvement!"

Sev shrugged, "Not much of an improvement."  
"Well, we're not in a competition now are we? So it doesn't really matter how much you improved, just that you did!"  
Severus wisely decides to let it go, "Your turn."  
She smirks at him, knowing that she won, and sends another stone flying just above the water. One...two...three...four...FIVE skips!  
"Good job," Severus allows with the slightest emotion, as Lily beams.  
And he can't help but think, _Perhaps this was meant to be. Maybe Lily and I can be like this forever. Perhaps when we're older we can get married and have our own house, far away from the Marauders and my parents and the Dark Lord. Perhaps we can become world-class potion masters and tour the world. We can see plays once a month and collect the playbills. We can see all the best zoos in the world, wizarding and muggle. We can have kids who will go to Hogwarts. We can become grandparents and maybe even great-grandparents. We can be HAPPY._  
And that moment, skipping stones by the lake with Lily, is all that matters, because they were happy.

**AN:** Happy Birthday to my friend, TB! She wanted a non-freeverse story with Snape and so I gave myself the prompts stone, playbill, and sandal for it. Hope it lived up to your expectations, TB! :D

**Please review! :)**


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